Brown v White, which is the best?

[dezza]

One of my favourite baits over the years has been bread. Whether it's used fresh as flake, or stale, and made up into paste, it's a bait that has caught me many many fish, including some big ones.

But one thing I have often wondered is whether brown bread is superior to white.

When I lived in South Africa, the locals swore by brown or whole meal paste, and so did I. I did well with it for many years.

But here in the UK you hardly ever see an angler using brown bread, when quite honestly brown bread has far more aroma and taste than white, which has had all the goodness stripped out of it.

And to tell the truth, I also use more white bread these days, when perhaps I shouldn't.

But what do you think?

Brown or white?

 

[jayh]

Speaking as an old ex baker. White will always be softer when used as flake. I've used both when fished as paste & always found white to be superior. This maybe because it's more visible

 

[tigger]

I'll stick to white and red maggots. Using bread on my local river will get you lots of blanks whatever colour it is.

 

[cg74]

After bream fishing in Ireland many moons ago and twice forgetting to pack my bulk sack of bread crumb consequently having to buy a load of the local dark tar smelling tack; catch rate was poor but mid way through both holidays I managed to find an English angler at the end of their trips and bought the remainder of their groundbait.... Resulting a dramatic improvement in my catch rate.

As a kid my parents used to inflict wholemeal bread on me, so obviously had only that to take as a quick grab bait but when I went fishing with a mate he'd always take white sliced and I reckon it doubled the number of chub caught.

White may have a lot of its nutrients bleached out of it but to my mind it's at least twice as effective compared to brown.
Maybe its the visual aspect or that white has a higher starch content, I don't know???

Another plus too white is being softer it stays on the hook better.

 

[Tee-Cee]

Ron,I used to fish the Vaal Dam back in the mid 70's for carp(a family member had a farm onto the dam)and yes they used a brown bread paste BUT I'm sure they added a flavour to it otherwise they didn't catch......cannot recall what they used though!

Never found brown bread made good paste in the UK(even using my own home-made bread where I can adjust quantities or add flavours!)....the consistency just never seems right somehow...but thats NOT to say it cannot be made to work!

.........perhaps someone has a recipe for brown bread that does produce good paste?

As far as shop bought stuff is concerned,brown/wholemeal(seems)much drier than white even fresh from the bag and also(seems)to dry out quicker on the bank and definitely goes hard quicker in cool water so I stick to white which,like you,has served me well over the years.....why change a winning formulae??

Still,an interesting Thread and perhaps others will have more to say on brown bread.....I hope so!!

 

[dezza]

Ron,I used to fish the Vaal Dam back in the mid 70's for carp(a family member had a farm onto the dam)and yes they used a brown bread paste BUT I'm sure they added a flavour to it otherwise they didn't catch......cannot recall what they used though!

Never found brown bread made good paste in the UK(even using my own home-made bread where I can adjust quantities or add flavours!)....the consistency just never seems right somehow...but thats NOT to say it cannot be made to work!

.........perhaps someone has a recipe for brown bread that does produce good paste?

The South Africans were well known for their flavours TC, some of which would shock a lot of UK anglers; for example: TCP!!

One variety of brown bread paste I found extremely successful was made up by using local cheap brandy!

But then many SA fish species were alcoholics didn't you know.

 

[Tee-Cee]

Ron..don't I feel a right twit!

Walking a river this morning and it came to me out of the blue(like these things do!)that it wasn't bread paste fished on the Vaal Dam but paste made from mealies!
I seem to remember it was mealie-pap or maybe similar....to the breakfast porridge....don't know how it was made up though!

My distant memory recalls breakfast at the farm was a savoury version of mealie-pap with a thick brown meat sauce or gravy poured over the top but it had a different name(?)......anyway it was wonderful to have before a days fishing!!

Perhaps mealies would make a good paste in the UK.......have you ever tried it??

 

[captain carrott]

The South Africans were well known for their flavours TC, some of which would shock a lot of UK anglers; for example: TCP!!

One variety of brown bread paste I found extremely successful was made up by using local cheap brandy!

But then many SA fish species were alcoholics didn't you know.

Many british fish species are too, if you think about swordsies comments on catching on fermented bird seed on the trent, the french penchent for well stewed maize.

plus i've had good results on fermented maize and hemp concoctions.

i'd never even considered using brown bread as bait assuming that it's different texture would make it a bit of a nightmare, as it just doesn't have the same texture as white breads which are good on the hook.

(i really should have put other than as crumb in ground bait when i wrote that about brown)

 

[jcp01]

I like fishing white warburtons fished over brown liquidised. A recent discovery actually, and one that I think has some merit. Not quite sure why as yet...

 

[Tee-Cee]

Sound like a better option rufus..........I agree on the'why' bit....some bright spark will have an answer.....

 

[dezza]

What is termed "meiliepap" is in fact a staple food in Africa. It is either white or yellow maize meal which has been mixed with water and cooked, mainly in a "potjie" or cast iron three legged pot over a fire.

I have cooked all sorts of stuff in these cast iron pots by the way. You can't beat a good beef stew done in this way.

But I digress, meilepap for fishing is a variety of "stywepap" (stiff porridge or paste). Here's how I used to make it.

Get equal quantities by volume of water and maize meal, say 1/2 a kilo each. Add to the maize meal, a table spoon of flour.

Bring the water to the boil in a saucepan and sprinkle the maizemeal and flour mixture over the water evenly. Allow to simmer gently for about 20 minutes.

At the end of this period get a wooden spoon and give the whole lot a thorough stirring. As the "pap" cools, tranfer it to your hands and work it until you have a nice soft paste.

You can of course add a variety of flavours.

The beauty about this stuff is that if you leave it overnight, fermentation starts to set in and you get a lovely "boozy" aroma to the bait which the fish love.

There are several places in England where you can get South African style maize meal. Look them up on Google.

I think this could be a great bait in the UK.

 

[ED (The ORIGINAL and REAL one)]

Sounds like 'Gari' or 'Fufu' -- made from cassava.....I had it years ago with a sort of hot spicy fish stew,

I was invited for dinner with a Ghanaian family -- quite an experience, eating with your fingers, all dipping into the one big dish of food in the centre of the table

 

[john conway (CSG - ACA)]

From 1972 to 2008 25% of all Chub above 4lb caught by members of the CSG were caught on bread or bread cocktails i.e., crust & Cheese Past etc. That is 3,463 out of 13,852 Chub were on bread.
Very few of the chub caught were recorded as caught on brown bread, by very few I mean around 10 to 15 Chub.
That’s not to say that white is as good as these results show, it’s just that most anglers don't use brown bread. It is also possible that most of the CSG members prefer to stick with traditional Chub baits, that’s not to say that members don’t use modern baits such as pellets and boilies, these do catch quite a few Chub. Bread is cheap and probably the most accessible of all baits and it catches an awful lot of Chub.

 

[Graham Whatmore]

I totally agree with you John, chub anglers that fish bread wouldn't dream of buying a brown loaf and I can say with all honesty I have never seen anyone use it and certainly havn't done so myself.

I, the late John Jones and his cousin Jim in the 70's fished bread flake and no other bait whatsoever for three years on the trot and during that period we had the best fishing we have ever had. We were catching fish from stretches where previously we had regularly done poorly, not only that but good quality fish that we didn't think even existed in those stretches.

Anglers over the generations have used white bread for a reason, it catches fish, quality fish and why would you want to change that?

 

[dezza]

I have caught chub on both brown and white bread. More on white bread I guess.

But I don't buy white bread to eat myself as I can't stand it - tasteless kak, it gives you constipation!

I particularly like a wholewheat farmhouse loaf with a top quality cheese, made into a cheese and onion sarmy. If I had the inclination, I'd make my own bread.

 

[Peter Jacobs]

tasteless kak, it gives you constipation!

Er, no it doesn't, but then you are a lot older than me, my old mate . . . . . .

[insert 'younger and livelier' smiley thing > > > HERE]